Thank you for lessening my burden.
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“I’m late to the party as I just listened to The Retrievals. It was so well done I was left balling my eyes out & rocking. While I wasn’t at the Yale Clinic, the same thing happened to me in 90s at the fertility clinic at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. I had an egg retrieval there for ICSI which is a step above IVF. Let me preference what I’m about to say by saying I’ve had 9 surgeries so I know how hospitals work. I also have a high pain tolerance & I always rebounded quickly. Yet knowing all that I still allowed these people to gaslight me over & over again bc I believed they were all that stood between me & having a baby. I believed I could trust them. I believed that a doctor & a nurse were sworn to “do no harm.” I believed they had my best interests in mind. Turns out your story is my story verbatim except in my case I don’t know why I wasn’t given ANY medication. When we arrived and they were preparing me for the retrieval the nurse said we were about to go & I asked her for the pain meds. She looked at me like I was insane or like it was an inappropriate comment, and said, “you don’t need them.” I said, “yes I do.” She said it wouldn’t hurt & that most women didn’t need medication. I told her I needed them again and she slapped a CD player on me and said I’d be fine. All I could hear on the CD player was static and she refused to help me find me find a station. She ignored me throughout the procedure. She refused to make eye contact with me. While the retrieval was happening I begged the doctor to stop or give me medication and he ignored me too & said all the same things these women say they were told. I was criticized for many things before, during & after the retrieval but moving on the operating table as he jabbed me over & over made them the most angry. I’m 60 now & I still have nightmares & flashbacks from this procedure, from having my body internally ripped apart by a stainless steal tube & bc no one listened to me as I screamed out in pain. I screamed for them to stop and the doctor would say things like, ‘don’t you want a baby?’. The nurse who refused to give me ANY pain medication, ended up calling me a wimp. My husband & I went back to specifically talk to the doctor about my pain, nightmares & the nurse’s behavior. I was treated exactly the same as these victims. The doctor continued the gaslighting. I never thought of the nurses stealing the medication. I never knew we suffered physically & long-term emotionally so the nurses could feed their addiction or make a profit. In the end we paid $15,000 so I could be tortured & gaslighted. We’d already been through many years of infertility treatments. I couldn’t make myself try again after this horrifying incident. Like I said, this happened to me in the fertility clinc at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sadly, to my knowledge, they were never held accountable. After hearing your story I’m certain I wasn’t the only one who suffered there. And after your story I know it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me. That’s gives me some peace of mind. It wasn’t me. Thank you! You’re a brilliant story teller.”
Bybeeblue via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
01/04/24
More reviews of The Retrievals
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“It’s a good story but the long bouts of dramatic violin music and extended “ummm, uhhhh” unedited whiny vocal fry from some patients are nearly unbearable. I’ll give it one more episode to see if things improve.”
dani.dani via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
06/30/23
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“Another great podcast from Serial. I figured this would be an interesting story, but I did not expect to be gutted from episode 1. Well done and great reporting as always.”
Jabberwocky1208 via Apple Podcasts ·
United States of America ·
07/01/23
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